US20090125376A1 - Advertisements on mobile devices using integrations with mobile applications - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for delivering advertisements to mobile devices includes integrating an ad position within an application executable from a mobile device, wherein the ad position remains substantially constant in a location on a screen of the mobile device as viewed by a user throughout use of the application; including an ad call associated with the ad position; in response to executing the application, causing the ad call to retrieve an advertisement from an ad server; and receiving the advertisement into the ad position by the mobile device for display to the user.

Description

BACKGROUND
• 1. Technical Field
• The disclosed embodiments relate to advertisements (ads) on mobile devices, and more particularly, to ads served to mobile devices using integrations of ad position within applications through which the ads are displayed.
• 2. Related Art
• Advertising on the internet has been historically tied to content. Advertisements (“ads”) are displayed on specific web pages. Monetization of those ads typically involves and benefits the publisher of content displayed as part of a web page on a mobile device. This model has worked well on the personal computer because there is adequate real-estate or display area on a personal computer screen as part of the content for insertion of the ads, e.g., within the web page of the browser used to display the content. Additionally, the content publisher usually provides key content (and possibly user) data to ensure good targeting of the ads. Targeting of ads involves the gathering and tracking of personal user information and browsing behavior of particular searchers with which advertising is custom-fit to those particular people.
• However, the service of ads to mobile devices varies in significant ways. Given the small size of most mobile device screens, there is limited space for the content to share with ads. This often results in unsatisfactory viewing experiences by searchers, which significantly diminishes advertising results for advertisers. For example, an advertiser may insert ads at the end of a short messaging service (SMS) message. SMS messages, however, have a fixed maximum length and this technique depends on adequate space, e.g., a certain number of characters, being left over for the ad to be inserted for display.
• There also exists a lack of adequate context in the mobile devices advertising arena to improve targeting of ads to particular users. For example, an e-mail or SMS message may provide very little value for targeting to commercial ad categories. This is because every day messages are very personal and do not necessarily have a commercial context. In contrast, a web browser on a computer, for instance, has as one of its primary purposes the access by users to commercial information and purchasing opportunities. With cookies, internet protocol (I.P.) address resolution, the ability to track clicks, etc., the web browser of a personal computer is a useful tool for tracking commercial-related information of a user. These abilities are not integrated within a mobile device, and therefore, the ability to track a user's commercial-related behavior and interests is more difficult.
• It is also known to stream advertisements through a client window displayed on a personal computer and to provide a user interface controls for interaction therewith. This client window is not fixed but is movable by the user to various positions within the computer's screen. The client window also is not integrated within a specific application, although interaction with the client window may cause a linking action that causes a web browser of the computer to go to a website of an advertiser.
SUMMARY
• By way of introduction, the embodiments described below are drawn to mobile device application integration for inserting advertising, and more specifically, to mobile devices and related methods that integrate an ad position within an application of the mobile device for display of advertisements retrieved by those applications.
• In a first aspect, a method is disclosed for delivering advertisements to mobile devices, including integrating an ad position within an application executable from a mobile device, wherein the ad position remains substantially constant in a location on a screen of the mobile device as viewed by a user throughout use of the application; including an ad call associated with the ad position; in response to executing the application, causing the ad call to retrieve an advertisement from an ad server; and receiving the advertisement into the ad position by the mobile device for display to the user.
• In a second aspect, a method is disclosed for delivering advertisements to mobile devices, including integrating an ad position within an application executable from a mobile device, wherein the ad position remains substantially constant in a location on a screen of the mobile device as viewed by a user throughout use of the application; retrieving a plurality of ads from an ad server for display within the ad position; storing the plurality of ads in a storage of the mobile device; and rotatably inserting the plurality of ads in the ad position during use of the application.
• In a third aspect, a system is disclosed for receiving advertisements, including a screen for displaying a plurality of applications together with advertisements to a user. A processor executes the plurality of applications of the mobile device. A storage stores the advertisements and program code that executes the plurality of applications. An ad position for displaying the advertisements is integrated into the program code of at least one of the plurality of applications executable by the processor such that the ad position remains substantially constant in a location on the screen as viewed by the user throughout use of the at least one application.
• Other systems, methods, features and advantages will be, or will become, apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the following claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
• The system may be better understood with reference to the following drawings and description. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. Moreover, in the figures, like-referenced numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views.
• FIG. 1 illustrates a system diagram of a wireless cellular network as interconnected with an advertisement serving network.
• FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary mobile device depicting an advertisement (“ad”) position integrated within a substantially fixed screen location of an application executed thereon.
• FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic block diagram depicting the inner hardware of a typical mobile device such as that displayed inFIG. 2.
• FIG. 4 illustrates a method in which the mobile device ofFIG. 2 is initiated for reception of advertising into the ad position.
• FIG. 5 illustrates a system for serving ads to the mobile device ofFIG. 2, which includes employment of user data targeting technologies.
• FIG. 6 is a flow chart of an exemplary method for delivering advertisements to mobile devices.
• FIG. 7 is a flow chart of another embodiment of the method ofFIG. 6.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
• In the following description, numerous specific details of programming, software modules, user selections, network transactions, database queries, database structures, etc., are provided for a thorough understanding of various embodiments of the systems and methods disclosed herein. However, the disclosed system and methods can be practiced with other methods, components, materials, etc., or can be practiced without one or more of the specific details. In some cases, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail. Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. The components of the embodiments as generally described and illustrated in the Figures herein could be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations.
• The order of the steps or actions of the methods described in connection with the disclosed embodiments may be changed as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. Thus, any order appearing in the Figures, such as in flow charts or in the Detailed Description is for illustrative purposes only and is not meant to imply a required order.
• Several aspects of the embodiments described are illustrated as software modules or components. As used herein, a software module or component may include any type of computer instruction or computer executable code located within a memory device and/or transmitted as electronic signals over a system bus or wired or wireless network. A software module may, for instance, include one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions, which may be organized as a routine, program, object, component, data structure, etc. that performs one or more tasks or implements particular abstract data types.
• In certain embodiments, a particular software module may include disparate instructions stored in different locations of a memory device, which together implement the described functionality of the module. Indeed, a module may include a single instruction or many instructions, and it may be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Some embodiments may be practiced in a distributed computing environment where tasks are performed by a remote processing device linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, software modules may be located in local and/or remote memory storage devices.
• FIG. 1 illustrates a system diagram of a wirelesscellular network100 as interconnected with an advertisement servingnetwork104. The wirelesscellular network100 includes a plurality ofcellular towers108 through which a plurality ofmobile devices112 gain access to amobile network infrastructure116 that provides, in addition to linkage to othermobile devices112, the proper routing for delivery of content, including advertisements, to themobile devices112. The wirelesscellular network100 additionally includes a public switched data network (PSDN)120 and a public switched telephone network (PSTN)124. Each respectivecellular tower108 provides radio communication formobile devices112 in a geographic area served by the respectivecellular tower108. Mobility is provided for themobile devices112 by handing off radio communication from onecellular tower108 to another as the mobile devices move through an area.
• Themobile network infrastructure116, thePSDN120, and thePSTN124 all may communicate through anothernetwork130 such as the internet, the World Wide Web, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), and/or through an extranet. Themobile network infrastructure116 and thenetwork130 may include some levels of integration between the two, and therefore, that each is separately labeled is for clarity of discussion only. Thead serving network104 may include thenetwork130, and accessible therethrough, a search engine (or Web server)134, anad server140 including anadvertiser database144, and a plurality ofadvertisers150 andmobile application developers154.
• Theadvertiser database144 is for storing advertisements (“ads”) and advertiser-related administrative information. The ads are deliverable over thenetwork130 by thead server140 to web pages or other applications executable from personal computing devices, including themobile devices112 of interest in this disclosure. Ads include text, graphics and other information and data provided by anadvertiser150 for presentation to a user of a mobile device such asmobile device112. As previously noted, ads served to a web page or browser of amobile device112 are limited in regards to space, dimension, etc., where such ads will oftentimes not be viewable or of such poor quality as to not have the desired marketing affect sought for by anadvertiser150. As will be discussed, one or more ads served by thead server140 may be stored locally by amobile device112 for insertion, on a rotating basis, into the applications executed thereon. Additionally, theadvertisers150 may submit ads that they want served to applications onmobile devices112 to thead server140, which may be owned or operated by an online service provider (OSP) such as Yahoo! of Sunnyvale, Calif. or Google of Mountain View, Calif. that also act as advertisement brokerages.
• There are several popular applications available for current mobile devices or to be available in the future for future mobile devices, which include voice applications such as address book, dialer, and voicemail, and data applications such as browsers, short message service (SMS), e-mail, games, map navigation, etc. There are many sources to these applications, some of which include: (1) chip set and operating system vendors such as Qualcomm® that provide applications integrated within their operating system stack; (2) original equipment (or device) manufactures (OEM) may add or replace applications with their own branded applications; (3) mobile carriers may provide applications that are pre-installed or downloadable; and (4) the developer community may author additional applications. All of these sources of applications are jointly referred to herein asapplication developers154.
• FIG. 2 is amobile device112 suitable for use in conjunction with the wirelesscellular network100 ofFIG. 1. Themobile device112 includes afirst body portion202 and asecond body portion204. Thefirst body portion202 includes akeypad206 andother buttons208 and amicrophone210. Thesecond body portion204 is attached by a hinge to thefirst body portion202 and includes adisplay screen212 and aspeaker214. Thekeypad206,buttons208,microphone210,display212, andspeaker214 together form a user interface for controlling themobile device112 by a user. The physical embodiment of themobile device112 is intended to be illustrative only. A wide variety of devices may be used to provide the functionality described herein for a mobile device such asmobile device112.
• Thedisplay screen212 includes a plurality of areas in which text, graphics and other information may be displayed. These areas may typically be defined by software or other applications operating on themobile device112. As discussed, such applications include web browsers, short message service (SMS), games, e-mail, and even other non-content applications such as address books, calendars, and dialer screens. Thescreen212 of themobile device112 displays the application as directed by software code stored in themobile device112 for execution of the same. Applications are designed to be executed on certain types ofmobile devices112 where original equipment manufactures (OEMs) of thedevices112 may need to work with theapplication developers154 to ensure that the application as executed fits within theviewable screen212 area, which is much smaller than a typically computer screen.
• The exemplary embodiment ofFIG. 2 illustrates an advertisement (“ad”)position220 integrated within a substantially fixedscreen location224 on thedisplay212 when an application is executed thereon. Thead position220 may be located in any region or regions of thedisplay screen212. In accordance with the present embodiments, thead position220 is directly integrated into applications that operate in conjunction with themobile device112.
• Direct integration of adedicated ad position220 into specific applications, e.g., coded into the applications for execution on themobile device112, allows thead position220 to be reserved in advance. Thead position220 may be integrated directly into the source code of the application. Thelocation224 on thescreen212 of thead position220 will then remain substantially fixed absent updates or changes to the application itself. Ad position integration within mobile applications prevents the need to custom fit different types of ads within varying available positions of a web page or other content delivered within the applications, thus making ad delivery as disclosed herein content independent. For example, the bottom one-fourth of an SMS application screen could be reserved for an ad. Dedicated ad positions220 will result in much more predictable space availability for these ads, with fixed height and width dimensions, similar to ads served on a personal computer. Ad position integration will provide better value for advertisers, and also enable greater reach as ads can be inserted in thead position220 each time the application is in use, regardless of whether the content enables such aposition220 for an ad.
• Note that thescreen location224 is shown as spanning vertically over a set of horizontally running pixel bands, but thescreen location224 may vary vertically and horizontally in any number of possible areas of thescreen212. For instance, the horizontally running pixel bands need not run the entire width of thescreen212. Such areas also need not be symmetrical.
• FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram depicting the inner hardware of a typicalmobile device112 such as that displayed inFIG. 2. Themobile device112 includes thescreen212, anantenna304, atransmitter308, areceiver312, aprocessor316, a memory storage320 (“storage”), apower supply324, and aduplexer328. In an exemplary embodiment, theantenna304 may be coupled to both thetransmitter308 and thereceiver312, or thetransmitter308 and thereceiver312 may be connected to respective antenna units (not shown). In one embodiment, theduplexer328 is coupled to both thetransmitter308 and to thereceiver312 to selectively switch between received and sent radio signals.
• In another exemplary embodiment, thescreen212, theprocessor316, thestorage320, and thepower supply module324 electrically communicate through acommunications bus330. Thecommunications bus330 is operable to transmit control and communications signals from and between the components connected to thebus330, such as power regulation, memory access instructions, and other system information. In this embodiment, theprocessor316 is coupled to thereceiver312 and to thetransmitter308.
• Thememory storage320 stores the applications executed on themobile device112 in addition to the ads that may be stored locally for insertion in thead position220 created within the application. When the application is active, it will call for ads directly from thead server140, and display those ads in the area(s) reserved for ads, e.g., in thead position220. The logic for requesting for an ad, as well as the display of the ad, may be independent of the content within the application at any given time. For example, an SMS application could call for an ad whenever the user opens an SMS message. Thescreen212 of the mobile device112 (a cell phone) depicted inFIG. 2 illustrates a sample SMS application with dedicated content independent real estate, thead position220 located at thescreen location224, into which an ad has been delivered upon request and inserted by the SMS application.
• In one embodiment, an advertising brokerage company collaborates with theapplication developers154 of mobile device applications to create dedicated real estate for one or more ads therein. Theapplication developers154 may integrate an ad call into the application such that the application is enabled to make ad calls to thead server140 at various points in the user flow. The ad call retrieves one or more ads from thead server140 and stores them in thememory storage320. When the application is executed, the ad call is then executed to either (or variably) pull an ad from thememory storage320 or directly from thead server140 over thenetwork116,130. The ad call pulls ads from these various locations and during intermittent or periodic moments during use of the application as determined by the coded ad call within thead position220. When the requested ad is delivered, themobile device112 inserts the ad for display to a user within thead position220 as located in the substantially fixedscreen location224.
• FIG. 4 illustrates a method in which themobile device112 ofFIG. 2 is initiated for reception of advertising to thead position220. Atstep404, amobile application developer154, such as an OEM, prepares an application (such as an SMS application) by integrating therein the ad position code. Thisad position220 may be an application programming interface (API) piece of code that is added within the application source code to act as an ad call when the application is executed. Atstep408, once thead position220 is integrated within the application, theapplication developer154 downloads, or caused to be downloaded, the application into themobile device112 for execution therein, either over the air or as a pre-load directly into themobile device112. Atstep412, the application is ad-enabled so that ad service is provided to themobile device112. Ad service takes place through a client advertisement application programming interface (API)stack416 of thead server140. When the API of the application loaded on themobile device112 is executed, a call is sent to theclient API stack416, which executes a related stack of code that will deliver the ad.
• FIG. 5 illustrates a system for serving ads to themobile device112 ofFIG. 2. The system includes amobile device112, anetwork116,130, anad server140 andad database144. Through acommunication link504 and over thenetwork116,130, themobile device112 may submit an extensible markup language (XML) ad request to amobile ad API508, which is a part of thead server140 used for communicating withmobile devices112. In return, over thenetwork116,130 and through acommunication link512, themobile ad API508 returns one or more ads per the ad request of themobile device112. The processor316 (FIG. 3) may execute the application and ad calls stored in thememory storage320 so that thetransmitter308 transmits thecommunication link504 and so that thereceiver312 receives thecommunication link512. In addition to insertion of one of the received ads in thead position220, themobile device112 may also store in the memory storage320 a plurality of received ads for rotatable insertion in thead position220 during the use of the application that made the ad call. When thead server140 sends the one or more ads as requested by the ad call of thead position220, thead server140 selects an ad format, to include size, resolution, number of colors, etc., to best match the screen size and capabilities of themobile device112. This ad format will relate to the size and dimensions, etc., of thead position220 found at the fixedscreen location224 of thescreen212.
• When another ad call is executed, either after a predetermined period of time of use of the application or upon execution of another application, a new plurality of ads may be fetched from thead server140 by themobile device112. These newly received ads may be stored in thememory storage320 as a replacement or an augmentation to those previously stored therein.
• Thead server140 may include a user data targetingtechnologies module516 to carry out analysis on information received and/or stored in thead server140 so that thead server140 may send to themobile device112 targeted advertising as related to the particular user of themobile device112. This information may include information related to the user's interests and behavior. For instance, the information needed for such targeting of particular users may be obtained as they interact through various applications of themobile device112 with those of the ad brokerage company, in addition to interaction with related applications and services whether accessed through themobile device112 or other computing devices such as a personal computer.
• As long as the ad brokerage company knows the particular user with which it interacts over thenetwork116,130, useful targeting information may be collected and eventually used by the user data targetingtechnologies module516 to send targeted advertising to themobile device112 of a particular user. For instance, the SMS application shown in themobile device112 ofFIG. 2 could make a request for an ad whenever the user opens an SMS message. The request could carry additional information that would help better target the ad for the user. The information could include a user's location, a model of themobile device112 being used by the user, and content being seen by the user. While such content is not needed for service of the ads to thead position220, it may be useful for purpose of ad targeting. Thead server140 may also include an ad booking andreporting module520 for handling the ad campaigns of theadvertisers154, and for interaction with the same in terms of sending reports.
• FIG. 6 is a flow chart of an exemplary method for delivering advertisements tomobile devices112. Atblock604, anad position220 is integrated within an application executable from amobile device112, wherein thead position220 remains substantially constant in alocation224 on ascreen212 of themobile device112 as viewed by a user throughout use of the application. Atblock608, an ad call is included with thead position220. Atblock612, the ad call is caused to retrieve an advertisement from anad server140 in response to execution of the application. Atblock616, the advertisement is received into thead position220 by themobile device112 for display to the user.
• FIG. 7 is a flow chart of another embodiment of the method ofFIG. 6. Atblock704, anad position220 is integrated within an application executable from amobile device112, wherein thead position220 remains substantially constant in alocation224 on ascreen212 of themobile device112 as viewed by a user throughout use of the application. Atblock708, a plurality of advertisements are retrieved from anad server140 for display within thead position220. Atblock712, the plurality of ads are stored in astorage320 of themobile device112. Atblock716, the plurality of ads are rotatably inserted in thead position220 during use of the application.
• Various modifications, changes, and variations apparent to those of skill in the art may be made in the arrangement, operation, and details of the methods and systems disclosed. The embodiments may include various steps, which may be embodied in machine-executable instructions to be executed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer (or other electronic device). Alternatively, the steps may be performed by hardware components that contain specific logic for performing the steps, or by any combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware. Embodiments may also be provided as a computer program product including a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that may be used to program a computer (or other electronic device) to perform processes described herein. The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, propagation media or other type of media/machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronic instructions. For example, instructions for performing described processes may be transferred from a remote computer (e.g., a server) to a requesting computer (e.g., a client) by way of data signals embodied in a carrier wave or other propagation medium via a communication link (e.g., network connection).

Claims (25)

1. A method for delivering advertisements to mobile devices, the method comprising:

integrating an ad position within an application executable from a mobile device, wherein the ad position remains substantially constant in a location on a screen of the mobile device as viewed by a user throughout use of the application;

including an ad call associated with the ad position;

in response to executing the application, causing the ad call to retrieve an advertisement from an ad server; and

receiving the advertisement into the ad position by the mobile device for display to the user.

2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein integrating an ad position within the application comprises modifying the source code of the application to code the ad position as a viewable portion of the screen when the application is executed.

3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein causing the ad call to retrieve an advertisement is executed independent of a content of the application.

4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the application comprises at least one of a short message service (SMS) application, a calendar, a game, an address book, an electronic mail application, a dialer and voicemail, or a map navigation application.

5. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising the ad call:

retrieving a new advertisement periodically throughout the use of the application by the user.

6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein causing the ad call to retrieve an advertisement from the ad server further comprises retrieving a plurality of advertisements to be stored in a storage of the mobile device, wherein one of the plurality of advertisements is displayed to the user from within the ad position.

7. The method ofclaim 6, further comprising:

displaying another one of the plurality of stored advertisements during a period of use of the application.

8. The method ofclaim 7, further comprising the ad call:

retrieving a second plurality of advertisements to replace or augment the plurality of stored advertisements.

9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the received advertisement comprises a targeted advertisement based on a user behavior or interest.

10. The method ofclaim 9, wherein the behavior or interest of the user is tracked through gathering information regarding the interaction of applications of the mobile device with a plurality of external applications.

11. The method ofclaim 1, wherein causing the ad call to retrieve an advertisement includes providing additional information that enables the ad server to provide a targeted advertisement in response to the ad call retrieve operation.

12. A method for delivering advertisements to mobile devices, the method comprising:

integrating an ad position within an application executable from a mobile device, wherein the ad position remains substantially constant in a location on a screen of the mobile device as viewed by a user throughout use of the application;

retrieving a plurality of ads from an ad server for display within the ad position;

storing the plurality of ads in a storage of the mobile device; and

rotatably inserting the plurality of ads in the ad position during use of the application.

13. The method ofclaim 12, further comprising:

integrating a second ad position within a second application executable from the mobile device, wherein the second ad position remains substantially constant in a location on a screen of the mobile device as viewed by a user throughout use of the second application;

retrieving a second plurality of ads different from the plurality of ads from the ad server for display within the ad position;

storing the second plurality of ads in the storage; and

rotatably inserting the second plurality of ads in the second ad position during use of the second application.

14. The method ofclaim 12, further comprising:

waiting a predetermined period of time during the use of the application; and

retrieving a second plurality of ads to replace or augment the plurality of stored advertisements.

15. The method ofclaim 12, further comprising:

integrating an ad call within the ad position of the application; and

in response to executing the application, causing the ad call to retrieve the plurality of advertisements from the ad server.

16. A mobile device for receiving advertisements, comprising:

a screen for displaying a plurality of applications together with advertisements to a user;

a processor to execute the plurality of applications of the mobile device; and

a storage to store the advertisements and program code that executes the plurality of applications;

wherein an ad position for displaying the advertisements is integrated into the program code of at least one of the plurality of applications executable by the processor such that the ad position remains substantially constant in a location on the screen as viewed by the user throughout use of the at least one application.

17. The mobile device ofclaim 16, wherein the program code comprises source code.

18. The mobile device ofclaim 16, further comprising:

an ad call integrated in the program code associated with the ad position, wherein in response to executing the at least one application, the processor retrieves an advertisement from an ad server to be displayed in the ad position.

19. The mobile device ofclaim 18, wherein the processor retrieves a plurality of advertisements from the ad server, the plurality of advertisements being stored in the storage for display within the ad position.

20. The mobile device ofclaim 19, wherein the program code causes display of the plurality of stored advertisements within the ad position to be rotated during use of the application by the user.

21. The mobile device ofclaim 19, wherein the processor retrieves a second plurality of advertisements from the ad server to replace or augment the plurality of stored advertisements.

22. The mobile device ofclaim 18, wherein the ad call is executed independent of a content of the at least one application.

23. The mobile device ofclaim 18, wherein the retrieved advertisement comprises a targeted advertisement based on a user behavior or interest.

24. The mobile device ofclaim 23, wherein the behavior or interest of the user is tracked through gathering information regarding the interaction of the plurality of applications of the mobile device with a plurality of external applications.

25. The mobile device ofclaim 18, wherein the processor retrieving the advertisement comprises sending additional information to the ad server to enable the ad server to provide a targeted ad in response to the retrieve operation.

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